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No more fine-grained volume control in Lion?

I

imgonephishin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 3, 2003
141
0
In Leopard and SL, I could press shift-option-(volume up or down) and get a more precise volume control that changed the volumes by quarter of a block on the screen instead of the full blocks.

The keyboard combination no longer works in Lion and I was wondering if anyone knew if it had changed to a different combination or if you have any workarounds? The best I can come up with is to save this applescript and drop it in the dock. A workable solution, but I'd prefer something a little more elegant and universal that would work on any Mac I work on.

This may not seem like much to you, but I work in a very quiet office. I like to listen to music but even on volume level 1 and itunes, Pandora, YouTube, whatever, set at the near minimum, it's still hard for me to hear my co-workers if they ask me something. I like my work music to be very quiet--like soft background noise.

Oh, and please spare me the snide comments about, "It's not there any more. Get over it and quit whining." I'm not acting like the sky is falling. Just curious if there's a better workaround.
 
B

bjett92

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2007
733
1
Indy, IN
Didn't realize this was gone. I never used it that much, but it was nice when the steps between the volume levels were too much. Does dragging the slider on the volume menu bar icon allow finer control?
 
I

imgonephishin

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 3, 2003
141
0
bjett92 said:
Didn't realize this was gone. I never used it that much, but it was nice when the steps between the volume levels were too much. Does dragging the slider on the volume menu bar icon allow finer control?
Click to expand...

Good idea about the slider. It looks like that does work for selecting volume levels below 1 whole step (IIRC on past versions of L and SL the slider looked very granular but just allowed you to pick the incremental levels).

I'd still love a way to do this more precisely from the keyboard if anyone knows of anything, but the slider is certainly better than that clunky applescript that I was using before.
 
Watabou

Watabou

macrumors 68040
Feb 10, 2008
3,425
755
United States
Aww man, I just noticed that this feature was gone. I used to use it all the time. Why the hell did Apple even remove this feature?
 
xraydoc

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
10,786
5,242
192.168.1.1
imgonephishin said:
In Leopard and SL, I could press shift-option-(volume up or down) and get a more precise volume control that changed the volumes by quarter of a block on the screen instead of the full blocks.

The keyboard combination no longer works in Lion and I was wondering if anyone knew if it had changed to a different combination or if you have any workarounds? The best I can come up with is to save this applescript and drop it in the dock. A workable solution, but I'd prefer something a little more elegant and universal that would work on any Mac I work on.

This may not seem like much to you, but I work in a very quiet office. I like to listen to music but even on volume level 1 and itunes, Pandora, YouTube, whatever, set at the near minimum, it's still hard for me to hear my co-workers if they ask me something. I like my work music to be very quiet--like soft background noise.

Oh, and please spare me the snide comments about, "It's not there any more. Get over it and quit whining." I'm not acting like the sky is falling. Just curious if there's a better workaround.
Click to expand...

I had no idea that was even there. Guess I won't miss it now that it's gone. I just always used the slider from the menu bar for fine control. LOL.
 
MartiNZ

MartiNZ

macrumors 65816
Apr 10, 2008
1,222
125
Auckland, New Zealand
xraydoc said:
I had no idea that was even there. Guess I won't miss it now that it's gone. I just always used the slider from the menu bar for fine control. LOL.
Click to expand...

I never knew either! Just when you think you know all the hidden UI stuff :). Like I just found out the other day that the "click scrollbar to go to next page / to scroll to here" option can be toggled on the fly by holding option - less useful with hiding scrollbars but still, hidden stuff is always fun finding out ... except I guess when it no longer applies....
 
mrmister

mrmister

Suspended
Dec 19, 2008
655
774
Used to be Apple would *add* features like this for power users to find. Now Lion is defined by removing them for absolutely no discernable reason.
 
I

ImFromAfrica

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2011
1
0
Stole this from another forum

1) reduce volume to just 1 bar
2) press F11 to lower the volume to 0 bars
3) press the mute key (F10)

Should give a lower volume than with just one bar. Sucks to lose the fine volume control though.
 
N

ncrypt

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2012
351
257
UK
It now works :D

Pressing shift+alt then the volume keys now works :D

*Using 10.7.4
 
Last edited:
G

gentlefury

macrumors 68030
Jul 21, 2011
2,866
23
Los Angeles, CA
imgonephishin said:
In Leopard and SL, I could press shift-option-(volume up or down) and get a more precise volume control that changed the volumes by quarter of a block on the screen instead of the full blocks.

The keyboard combination no longer works in Lion and I was wondering if anyone knew if it had changed to a different combination or if you have any workarounds? The best I can come up with is to save this applescript and drop it in the dock. A workable solution, but I'd prefer something a little more elegant and universal that would work on any Mac I work on.

This may not seem like much to you, but I work in a very quiet office. I like to listen to music but even on volume level 1 and itunes, Pandora, YouTube, whatever, set at the near minimum, it's still hard for me to hear my co-workers if they ask me something. I like my work music to be very quiet--like soft background noise.

Oh, and please spare me the snide comments about, "It's not there any more. Get over it and quit whining." I'm not acting like the sky is falling. Just curious if there's a better workaround.
Click to expand...

Works for me
 
G

gentlefury

macrumors 68030
Jul 21, 2011
2,866
23
Los Angeles, CA
Peace said:
It works in Mountain Lion.
Click to expand...

It works in Lion.

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